Calgary Economic Development

Focus on Leadership
A
special series on
C a l g a ry ’ s
business visionaries
A specia l pub l i c a t i o n o f t h e Calgar y H er ald sponsor ed by Calgary Economic Development
At Lawson Projects they get the job done
W
QUOTABLE
“
“Lawson Projects
strives to eliminate the
worry for our clients,
which often comes
with large and complex
development projects.”
The team at Lawson Projects includes,
standing, from left, Ian McMurray,
Jason Ragan and Dave Bartle. Seated,
from left, Bruce Yorga, Lorne Larrivee
and Norm Landry.
— Lorne Larrivee, president and
managing director of the firm
project, says Lorne Larrivee, president
and managing director of the firm.
“Lawson Projects strives to eliminate
the worry for our clients, which often
comes with large and complex development projects,” he says.
“Our clients range from the novice to
the well-experienced developer. Regardless of whether we are engaged on an
hourly basis or for a fixed fee, our
clients appreciate our standard
approach of using real teamwork to
successfully deliver their projects.”
Lawson Projects is owned and operated by six senior project managers.
A principal-in-charge is also assigned
to each client so projects are never left
unattended.
The company has worked on a significant number of recognizable projects
in the city and province including flood
restoration work and the new Agrium
western events centre for the Calgary
Stampede.
It provided services for the redevelopment of seniors’ residences in High
River for the Foothills Foundation and
the development of Willow Park on
the Bow, a 150–unit seniors’ residence.
Most recently, Lawson Projects was
a team member in the development of
Brewster Travel Canada’s award-
winning Glacier Skywalk Jasper
National Park that opened this past
May.
“Lawson Projects is continuing to
work on landmark projects in Calgary,
including the Calgary Film Centre,
which is scheduled to be completed
in the fall of 2015, various ENMAX
projects, and the youth campus
development for the Calgary Stampede
scheduled to be completed in 2017,”
says Larrivee.
“Lawson Projects has a long track
record of servicing a large range of
clients in the public, private and notfor-profit sectors, including utility
providers such as Enmax, ATCO and
FortisAlberta, commercial offices, the
City of Calgary, retail projects for UFA
and land development such as the
industrial and residential land development by Highfield Investment Group.”
Larrivee says long-term and returning
clients are won by delivering projects on
time and within budget.
“With the recent addition of two new
partners as part of the multi-year
succession plan, the ownership team
is well poised to continue providing
customized client solutions to new and
existing clients for many more years to
come,” says Larrivee.
Trico Homes builds social enterprise
s a homebuilder, it helps put
roofs over people’s heads, and
as a community-builder, it helps give
dreams legs.
Trico Homes, which has built more
than 8,000 single- and multi-family
homes, established the Trico Charitable
Foundation in 2008 under the leadership of Wayne Chiu, the company’s
founder.
Wayne and Eleanor Chiu have a
passion for entrepreneurship as well as
an awareness for the need for creative
solutions to ensure sustainability in the
non-profit sector.
“We want to be an encouragement
to those in the non-profit sector by
enabling and empowering them to
address social issues in a sustainable
way,” says Wayne Chiu.
“As a business, we want to bring
social value to what we do.”
Social entrepreneurship pursues
innovative solutions to social problems
by adopting a mission to create and sustain social value, while social enterprises
are business operations run by charities
or non-profit organizations in which
“
“We want to be an
encouragement to those
in the non-profit sector
by enabling and
empowering them to
address social issues in a
sustainable way.”
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A
hether it’s working on functional
flood restoration projects or the
stunning and inventive Glacier Skywalk
in Jasper National Park — where tourists can stroll out on a glass platform
280 metres above a mountain valley
— Lawson Projects brings almost 40
years of experience and unparalleled
expertise to the table.
Calgary-based Lawson Projects has
been providing independent project
management services to organizations
looking to develop and implement
their capital improvement plans since
1976.
It has served as the owner’s representative on a large and varying number of
development projects across Western
Canada.
The 16-member team of construction
executives at Lawson Projects all have
diverse backgrounds in development
and construction, with experience
in every aspect of the industry, from
planning to design to construction and
facility operations.
The Lawson Projects team includes
professional engineers, architects and
architectural and engineering technologists ready to provide project owners
with customized project management
services to suit the exact needs of each
— Wayne Chiu, Trico Homes
any revenue generated is reinvested into
the charity to support its programs and
operations.
Chiu says social enterprise encourages
greater resiliency and independence
within the non-profit sector, since it
helps non-profits stabilize and diversify
their funding sources while contributing
to their programs or services.
The Trico Charitable Foundation
supports social entrepreneurship in
several ways.
It helped launch Enterprising
Wayne Chiu, president and CEO of Trico Homes, founded the Trico Charitable
Foundation in 2008 to encourage social entrepreneurship.
Non-Profits Alberta, which provides
funding and educational opportunities
for Alberta-based non-profit organizations to evaluate and enhance their
social enterprises.
As well, workshops are held throughout the year for organizations interested
in securing business development
funding from the Trico Charitable
Foundation.
The foundation also established Social
EnterPrize, an awards program that
honours Canadian leaders and nonprofit organizations that are effectively
using social enterprise to deepen their
community impact.
The Trico Charitable Foundation
is also the founding partner of the
Canadian Youth Business Foundation’s
socialpreneur program, an initiative
that provides funding and support for
young social business entrepreneurs
throughout Alberta.
“When we marry our business with
social entrepreneurship, we encourage
others to do the same,” says Chiu. “This
is also why we like to partner with
organizations like Calgary Economic
Development to maximize our impact.”
Over the past 22 years, Trico Homes
has established a well-known reputation for integrity and quality and has
earned many awards as a great place
to work and for being an exceptionally
well-managed company.
“Right now we are focused on
building on our financial strength and
using our profits to sustain our current
operations,” says Chiu. “And we want to
continue to influence others to engage
in and support social entrepreneurship.
This is what we want our legacy to be.”
PwC brings expertise to private companies
T
and their business and to be part of
their journey.”
Ibrahim recently took over as the
leader of PwC
Calgary’s growing
“We want to understand
private company
our clients and their
services practice and
has 17 years of
business and to be part of
experience specialtheir journey.”
izing in tax planning
for private companies
— Nadja Ibrahim, the Calgary private
and their owners.
company services leader for PwC
“I have extensive
experience in the
areas of Canada-U.S. cross-border
estate planning and issues facing
owner-managed corporations,” says
Ibrahim.
“I assist clients with their succession
planning, whether it may be moving
Nadja Ibrahim, the private company services leader for PwC in Calgary,
the business to the next generation, an
says the company works with businesses, both big and small.
employee buyout or a sale.”
She says while sometimes people
services, energy services, technology
“Our team is made up of a group of
see PwC as a firm that exclusively
and hospitality.”
trusted business advisers who get to
serves only big, public companies, PwC
She says the team is focused on
know the owners and their business,”
provides a dedicated team in its private
building deeper relationships and
says Ibrahim.
company services practice.
creating value in everything it does.
“We want to understand our clients
“
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hey are known globally as a
professional, powerhouse firm
staffed with industry experts that serve
some of the world’s largest and bestknown companies, but they are also
trusted locally as accessible, reliable and
knowledgeable.
PwC team members work with
private companies to help understand
the issues that are keeping owners up
at night, and they offer a third-party
perspective with specialized business
consulting, deal brokering, tax and
accounting expertise.
“Never make the mistake that PwC
is just for the big public companies —
over 65 per cent of our clients are
private businesses ranging from high
net worth individuals to ownermanaged family businesses and large,
professionally managed businesses,”
says Nadja Ibrahim, the Calgary private
company services leader for PwC.
“We’ve worked with companies
in a myriad of industries like junior
oil and gas, real estate, construction,
development, private equity, oil and gas
“Our commitment to this area means
that we are able to provide a full range
of services to private companies, from
offering tax and accounting services to
consulting services and services relating
to assisting businesses that are looking
to grow or sell,” says Ibrahim.
“Our goal is to continue to devote
resources to private company services
and grow this area of practice so that
there is no confusion that PwC is a
leader in the private company space.”
Partnerships, such as the one PwC
has developed with Calgary Economic
Development as an Action Calgary
partner, are instrumental in ensuring
the firm’s key messages and competencies are made known to the business
community.
“At PwC, we’re dedicated to values
of excellence, teamwork and leadership,”
says Ibrahim. “We’re proud to partner
with corporations like Calgary
Economic Development to make a
positive, lasting change in our
communities through the sharing of
our time, expertise and resources.”
ABOUT THIS CONTENT: This feature was produced by the Calgary Herald’s Special Projects department on behalf of Calgary Economic Development for commercial purposes.
The Calgary Herald’s editorial department had no involvement in the creation of this content.